Violence arises not out of superfluity of power but out of powerlessness.
ROLLO MAYViolence arises not out of superfluity of power but out of powerlessness.
ROLLO MAYMany people suffer from the fear of finding oneself alone, and so they don’t find themselves at all.
ROLLO MAYThe creative act arises out of the struggle of human beings with and against that which limits them.
ROLLO MAYThis is what our society needs – not new ideas and inventions; important as these are, and not geniuses and supermen, but persons who can be, that is, persons who have a center of strength within themselves.
ROLLO MAYThe relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it is not without doubt but in spite of doubt.
ROLLO MAYI learned that healing and cure are active processes in which I myself needed to participate.
ROLLO MAYHate is not the opposite of love; apathy is.
ROLLO MAYJoy, rather than happiness, is the goal of life, for joy is the emotion which accompanies our fulfilling our natures as human beings. It is based on the experience of one’s identity as a being of worth and dignity.
ROLLO MAYAll people are struggling to be creative in some way, and the artist is the one who has succeeded in this task of life.
ROLLO MAYScience, Nietzsche had warned, is becoming a factory, and the result will be ethical nihilism.
ROLLO MAYWhat if imagination and art are not frosting at all, but the fountainhead of human experience?
ROLLO MAYCreativity is the process of bringing something new into being. Creativity requires passion and commitment. It brings to our awareness what was previously hidden and points to new life. The experience is one of heightened consciousness: ecstasy.
ROLLO MAYSuffering is nature’s way of indicating a mistaken attitude or way of behavior, and to the nonegocentric person every moment of suffering is the opportunity for growth. People should rejoice in suffering, strange as it sounds, for this is a sign of the availability of energy to transform their characters.
ROLLO MAYThe mature person becomes able to differentiate feelings into as many nuances, strong and passionate experiences, or delicate and sensitive ones, as in the different passages of music in a symphony. Unfortunately, many of us have feelings limited like notes in a bugle call.
ROLLO MAYThe ultimate error is the refusal to look evil in the face.
ROLLO MAYCompetitive individualism militates against the experience of community, and that lack of community is a centrally important factor in contemporaneous anxiety.
ROLLO MAY